It is, not surprisingly, a new programme that enrols new devices onto your system automatically, without your IT team having to get their hands dirty.

2. Enrolment is not the same as management.

The technology behind DEP doesn’t replace a Mobile Device Management system (MDM). You need to have a separate MDM solution to decide which apps should be on devices and what content students who’ll be using them should be able to access.

There’s no charge for using DEP but you do have to have an MDM solution in place for it to work, and alas, the good ones are not free. If you don’t have a device management solution in place, give our team a call to go through your options.

4. It applies to any kind of Apple device.

Desktops, notebooks, iPad, iPod touch and iPhone can all be enrolled in DEP, as long as they were purchased after March 2011 and from an Apple Authorised Reseller (like us). To enrol devices you already own into DEP, you need to associate them with the reseller ID of the company you bought them from – if that’s us, our ID is 2287450.

5. You can create multiple profiles.

So different profiles can be installed on desktops and iPad, or on devices intended for students and teachers – and they’ll all be applied automatically as soon as the device is turned on.

6. You can’t have devices on this and in Apple Configurator.

If you’re already using Apple Configurator to set up your devices, you can transition to DEP by wiping the devices and re-enrolling them. However, once a device is registered on DEP, you can no longer supervise it using Apple Configurator, as Apple don’t allow one device to be registered in both systems. If it’s easier for you, you can enrol only new devices via DEP, but still manage them through MDM. Just drop us a line to find out how.

Apple added a new managed distribution option to their Volume Purchasing Programme a while ago. With MDM you can now push apps out wirelessly without ever needing to type in a password on the iPad. Ask us to explain managed app distribution – the best way by far to deploy your apps.